Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers

Type	Private
Genre	Fast food restaurant
Founded	August 28, 1996 (1996-08-28) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
Founders	Todd Graves and Craig Silvey
Headquarters	Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
Number of locations	400+
Area served	United States, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Products	Chicken fingers • French fries • Coleslaw • Cane's Sauce • Texas toast • Soft drinks • Lemonade • Tea
Revenue	$1 billion (2017)
Website	raisingcanes.com

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers (commonly known as Cane’s) is a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in chicken fingers, that was founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey on August 26, 1996. While company headquarters remain in Louisiana, a second restaurant support office was opened in Plano, Texas in 2009.

History

Todd Graves first started dreaming of his very own restaurant in the early 1990s. Craig Silvey, an initial partner in Todd's plan, was enrolled in a business plan writing course at LSU at the time. They wrote the business plan and Silvey turned it in, for which Silvey received a "B-".^[1] Although the business plan was rejected numerous times by potential investors, Graves set out to earn the money he needed to start the restaurant, first by working in refineries in California, then by fishing for sockeye salmon in Alaska. He and Silvey then obtained an SBA loan, which they used to open the first restaurant in Baton Rouge at the intersection of Highland Road and State Street near the LSU campus. They even drew on the help of friends and family for some of the work on Cane's 1, and many of these names are carved in the restaurant woodwork. Originally, the small restaurant competed against a similarly themed drive-in called Bailey's Chicken Fingers on the opposite end of the campus. By 1999, however, it was able to prove itself the more successful business: it forced Bailey's out of business, becoming the only chicken-finger focused restaurant in the area.

In mid-1999, Silvey sold his stake to Graves to focus on completing an MBA at Wake Forest University and work in Silicon Valley. Later, Graves asked Silvey to return as vice president of finance and information technology.

By 2008, the chain had grown to over 50 locations. Most of the locations are in Louisiana, particularly in the Baton Rouge area. The first location outside of Baton Rouge was opened in 2001 in Lafayette—since then, new restaurants have been opened in 23 other states, in addition to all eight metropolitan areas of Louisiana. Graves plans to continue expansion of the chain throughout the United States and internationally, one each in Kuwait (opened September 2015) & Bahrain (opened September 2016), plus three in Saudi Arabia (first had opened February 2017), Lebanon (opened December 2017) & United Arab Emirates (opened in March 2018). Today there are over 390 stores in 24 states.^[2] Tennessee opened one in Knoxville in September 2014. California has 12 West Coast stores, most of them in Orange County: the first opened in late October 2015 in Costa Mesa; the second in early December in Aliso Viejo; the third in early March 2016 in Orange; the fourth had opened in mid-June in Laguna Hills; the fifth opened in mid-February 2018 in La Habra, the state's 8th. There are two Los Angeles County stores: one in Downey (opened August 2016) and another in Lakewood (opened March 2018) which are the state's 4th & 9th, respectively. There is currently one under construction being built in the city of Pico Rivera, which will open in early 2019. Riverside County opened the state's 6th store in Riverside in October 2017. San Bernardino County's two stores are in San Bernardino, which opened in mid-January 2018, the state's 7th; the other is in Ontario, opened in early July, the state's 11th. San Diego County's two stores are in Santee, opened in May; another opened in Vista, in mid-July, the state's 10th & 12th, respectively. Besides Pico Rivera, 4 others are planned to open later in the year: Bakersfield, Menifee, Temecula & Upland. Kansas has 4 stores: one in Lawrence (opened May 2016); Overland Park (opened October 2016); Shawnee (opened August 2017) & Manhattan (opened June 2018). Iowa has two stores: one in Council Bluffs (opened October 2016) and another in West Des Moines (opened May 2018). Illinois has 6 stores, all but one in Cook County: they opened its very first in North Riverside, a Chicago suburb in late January 2017; the second opened in mid-February in Oak Lawn; the third opened in Naperville in late April; the 4th had opened in Harwood Heights in late September; the 5th had opened in Evergreen Park in late October; the Windy City itself opened one near Loyola campus in March 2018, the state's 6th. New Mexico's first location opened in Las Cruces in mid-February, the chain's 24th state; and will plan to open more in Albuquerque & Santa Fe in the future.

According to Panda Restaurant Group, led by mogul Andrew Cherng, the chain plans to add restaurants in Alaska & Hawaii later in the year.^[3]

In January 2009, the company opened a second restaurant support office in Plano, Texas.^[4] In June 2011 it opened its 100th restaurant in Laurel, Mississippi. In February 2013 it opened its 150th location in San Antonio, Texas. The milestone 250th location opened in December 2015 in Lake Jackson, Texas. By November 2016 Houston, Texas hosted the milestone 300th restaurant's opening, on Rice & Westpark Tollway; and in late October 2017 Stillwater, Oklahoma was the site of the milestone 350th store. It is estimated that the 400th store will open in Menifee, CA in mid-October 2018.

CEO Graves and the chain have given more than 25 percent of their profits back to the communities where restaurants operate with an emphasis on schools, food banks, active lifestyles, canine assistance and business and entrepreneur organizations.^[5]

Logo

The sign at the original location at the intersection of Highland Rd and State St. in Baton Rouge

The original Raising Cane's was established in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the North Gates of Louisiana State University, at the intersection of East State Street and Highland Road. When remodeling the building, Graves discovered a hand painted sign featuring the logo from a previous business, Wolf's Bakery, under the cracking plaster on the south interior wall. It is a takeoff on the one for the bakery. The remains are still visible and intact on the wall inside the restaurant.

Menu

Chicken fingers at Raising Cane's

Raising Cane's offers a limited menu consisting of four main combos: "The Box Combo," "The 3-Finger Combo," "The Caniac Combo" and "The Sandwich Combo." It also includes a Kid's Meal and several sizes of bulk chicken items called Tailgates. ^[7]

Most of its restaurants use Coca-Cola as their primary soft drink supplier, but some, located in universities with differing pouring rights, use Pepsi, with Dr Pepper availability varied by market/local bottler. All of the restaurants do serve lemonade as well as iced tea.

References

External links

• Official website